Support to returnees, IDPs and host communities

An ACT member working in Sudan the Lutheran World Federation recognizes that the challenge of rebuilding South Sudan and resettling the returnees is enormous. This transition needs support from the international community. Areas that need immediate attention include, but are not limited to, food aid, food security, capacity building, water and sanitation, infrastructure development in health and education, provision of social services, peace building/psychosocial support, human rights support, and the development of economic activities and effective institutional structures. However, LWF also recognizes the limited internal capacity in Sudan at present to adequately meet these needs. This ACT Appeal extends the emergency services of ACT implementing members in South Sudan to support the returnees’ repatriation and resettlement.

The Sudanese who have been longer-term IDPs and refugees returning to their home areas are finding that their homes have been occupied by other IDPs. This means that the returnees are forced to start their lives all over again - building a new house on a plot of land that needs to be cleared if it is to be farmed. Availability of land is not a problem per se; however, harvests are frequently affected by drought, heavy rains, unreliable rainfalls and pests. People seldom have food and they need the tools and support to become sustainable in farming. The need for seeds and agricultural tools at the time of cultivation is also necessary for self-sufficiency and reliance. Due to the prolonged conflict in Eastern Equatoria, as in other parts of Sudan, the host communities themselves have very little food and other life-sustaining resources that they are able to share with the returnees.

This appeal will be implemented and serviced by the LWF Kenya/Sudan program and the LWF Uganda/Sudan program who are both planning in 2007 to set up a country program based out of Torit and, set up a hub area within Southern Sudan, with a liaison office Juba.

Name of ACT member/partner:

• The Lutheran World Federation/World Service, Uganda/Sudan

• The Lutheran World Federation/World Service, Kenya/Sudan

Project Completion Date: 31 December 2007

Reporting Schedule:

Signed by:

Jessie Kgoroeadira
Acting Director, ACT Co-ordinating Office